Allentown’s Scheuerman likes Redbirds’ prospects

Ross Scheuerman had junior seasons in wrestling and football that any high school athlete would envy.

Allentown High School’s Ross Scheuerman (center) tries to elude a pair of Lakewood High School defenders during a preseason scrimmage in Lakewood. He is looking to improve on his remarkable 2009 season, when he rushed for more than 1,700 yards. More photos at gmnews.com. ERIC SUCAR staff The Allentown star finished seventh in the state in wrestling at 160 pounds in a 34- 3 season, after rating among the state’s rushing leaders last fall with 1,717 yards and scoring 24 touchdowns for the football team, which opens its season on Saturday at 1 p.m. at home against Hopewell. He also plays defensive back.

But from the day he returned from the Atlantic City Convention Center in March (where the state wrestling championships are held), he has thought about his final football season with the Redbirds and playing in college, even though he said that competing in the state wrestling championships “was the best time I ever had in my life. It was unforgettable. Hopefully, I can compete for the state championship, at least among the top three, next season.”

But Scheuerman said that, unlike many top wrestlers around the state who work out on their own during the off-season and in club programs and tournaments, the only time he wrestles is from the Friday after Thanksgiving when the preseason starts to the day his season is over, which went to the final weekend last season.

“I don’t wrestle in the off-season,” said Scheuerman. “I just lift and run. I never step on the mats until practice starts.”

That seems hard to imagine from a wrestler who can reach 100 career victories after back-to-back, 30-win seasons, two District 25 titles and who just missed the state championships in his sophomore year with a fourth-place finish in Region VII. The 6-foot Scheuerman will move up to 171 pounds this upcoming wrestling season when he cuts his playing weight for football, which right now is 185 pounds.

Instead, his focus has been on getting ready for an even bigger senior season and playing football in college. He’s considering Lehigh, Lafayette and Monmouth where he attended football camps over the summer, and Holy Cross. He also attended a camp at Villanova.

“I want to play football in college. I’m not thinking about wrestling in college,” said Scheuerman, who said he’d schedule official college visits later in the fall. “I’m really excited about the season. I was No. 6 in the state in rushing, No. 1 in the Colonial Valley Conference last season and I hope to duplicate that. Obviously, I want to get better in every aspect. I want to get bigger and bigger for inside running. But I feel comfortable with all aspects. I just want to keep working hard at it.”

New head football coach Jay Graber, who worked with Scheuerman last season as an assistant at Allentown in a 4-6 season, feels he can step up to the challenge with an experienced line in front of him, even though the starting quarterback will be new this season.

“He’s doing well. He worked hard in the summer,” said Graber. “He’s being a leader. The line has helped him and worked hard for him.”

And defenses in the CVC will work even harder at trying to contain him with gimmick coverages.

“I don’t worry about that. It doesn’t bother me,” said Scheuerman. “I’ll still be effective. It will make me play even harder.”

And Scheuerman feels his team has measured up to Graber’s assessment that “we expect to do well.”

“We’re a little bit ahead of where we’d be at this point,” said Scheuerman. “In the past, once we got down, we’d give up. But this year is different. This year, we have to come out fighting and keep things going in the fourth quarter.”

One key, said Scheuerman, is that the offense that operates out of multiple sets is not as complicated as last season.

“It’s simplified and really easy,” he said. “It feels like we’re doing it a while. We still have more to put into the offense.”

And if juniors Anthony Toleno, who started from the fourth game of the season, and Sam Gore can run well and either senior Sam Shonk or sophomore Nick Palladino can move the offense at quarterback, it will ease the pressure and open things up for Scheuerman, who looks to surpass a memorable junior season that was one of the best ever at the school.